Do Hedge Funds Love Ladder Capital Corp (LADR)?

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Judging by the fact that Ladder Capital Corp (NYSE:LADR) has experienced bearish sentiment from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, it’s easy to see that there were a few hedgies that elected to cut their positions entirely heading into Q4. Interestingly, Geoffrey Raynor’s Q Investments (Specter Holdings) cut the largest position of the 700 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, comprising close to $2 million in stock. Peter Muller’s fund, PDT Partners, also cut its stock, about $0.8 million worth. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest dropped by 2 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Ladder Capital Corp (NYSE:LADR). These stocks are Houlihan Lokey Inc (NYSE:HLI), Jumei International Holding Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:JMEI), National Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ:FIZZ), and MGE Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:MGEE). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble LADR’s market valuation.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
HLI 13 66307 13
JMEI 13 32592 -2
FIZZ 8 24960 0
MGEE 7 17567 1

As you can see these stocks had an average of 10 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $35 million. That figure was $74 million in LADR’s case. Houlihan Lokey Inc (NYSE:HLI) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand MGE Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:MGEE) is the least popular one with only 7 bullish hedge fund positions. Ladder Capital Corp (NYSE:LADR) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard HLI might be a better candidate to consider a long position.

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